WINNIPEG – A Quebec man is being sent to prison for 30 months for his role in a Winnipeg credit fraud scheme which the Crown says could have resulted in staggering financial losses.
Elia Yazigi, who is 21, pleaded guilty to several charges, including committing a criminal act for the benefit of a criminal organization.
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Court heard that Yazigi and two other people came to Winnipeg last summer to swap out PIN pads at local businesses with ones that looked identical, but had been stolen and modified to collect credit card data.
READ MORE: Quebec police make 16 arrests in strike against bank card fraud
Yazigi – described as a hard-working shopkeepers’s son from Laval – was arrested after being caught red-handed at a Winnipeg restaurant.
He professed to not know who headed up the scheme and refused to identify his co-accused, who have not been arrested.
Crown prosecutor Terry McComb told court that if data acquired from 1,400 cards had been used to its fullest extent, it could have resulted in more than $3 million in losses.
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